Rhonda M. Partyka still recalls the night as though it were yesterday.
One early evening in June, Partyka placed a frantic phone call to police from her Blandford home, about a boorish, unwanted visitor "tearing apart her house" as she dialed.
With the sound of shattering glass marking its entrance, the visitor - a full-sized black bear - tore a window out of its frame, Partyka said, an 8-foot hunk of siding ripping off the building along with it.
The bear was apparently attempting to get onto the family's enclosed porch, where a large stash of sunflower seeds was stored.
"When he pulled that window out," Partyka said, "it was like nothing. It was unbelievable."
With her children home with her, Partyka said nothing she did - clanging on pots and yelling at the animal, included - had any effect on the situation.
"They say bears are elusive animals," she said. "By no means was this bear elusive."
People in many areas of the state are running into boldly behaved bears like the one Partyka encountered.
Recent incidents in Hampden, Hampshire and Franklin counties have shaken up residents in a number of towns, with bears reportedly weighing more than 300 pounds attacking dogs, raiding garbage cans and making broad daylight appearances just a few dozen feet from children playing in their backyards.
Sightings have been reported in more than a dozen towns from Blandford to Ware, including in thickly settled areas like downtown Palmer. In western Hampden and Hampshire Counties, sightings are so common that many cases go unreported, Cardoza said.
"We easily have 2,000 bears in the state," Cardoza said. "They're ubiquitous west of the Connecticut River, and there's some all the way out into Central Massachusetts."
Encounters up and down the East Coast this year range from the routine to the bizarre, including a June 15 incident in Rocky Mount, Va., where authorities shot a black bear after it wandered into Carillon Franklin Memorial Hospital.
Locally, incidents have raised safety concerns with residents.
In Northampton, a bear attacked a sleeping Jack Russell terrier June 22, delivering fatal wounds to the 5-year-old dog. In a separate incident the day before, Northampton police said another dog was also killed in a bear-related incident after it was hit by a motorcycle while chasing a bear across a street.
In Deerfield last week two bears were shot: one June 27 by a farmer after the animal climbed a barbed wire fence and went after his livestock and dog, the other by Environmental Police June 25 after it broke into an Upper Road home, stealing a loaf of bread while a woman slept upstairs.
Residents in the Turkey Hill section of Belchertown are also keeping their eyes open for a bear that has been sighted numerous times in the area, including when it unexpectedly dropped in on a backyard barbecue June 27. It came less than 25 feet from six children between the ages of 3 and 6 playing in the yard, said Belchertown resident Steve Soja.
"He had no fear of humans, and was certainly comfortable in his surroundings," Soja said.
While bear attacks remain uncommon, the long-term trend of their growing comfortable living in close quarters with humans is one that worries Cardoza. In one case two years ago, a black bear was even found denning underneath a porch in the Northampton area, Cardoza said.
So how does one stop bear troubles? Problems with brazen bruins usually boil down to one thing: food.
As young bears grow accustomed to higher-protein human food, they lose their taste for more natural foods like nuts and berries, Cardoza said. They begin taking chances, raiding bird feeders, corn fields and garbage cans in search of a bite to eat.
"It's somewhat like young people," Cardoza said. "Would they rather eat their vegetables or go to McDonald's?"
The first thing to do when bear problems arise is to remove anything that may seem appealing to a hungry bear, Cardoza said. Keep your distance, but be aggressive when you first see them, using things like garden hoses to scare them. If you don't they will quickly lose their fear of humans.
And most importantly, under no circumstances try to make bears into pets, leaving "treats" for them - it encourages them to stay in the immediate area, and is actually illegal in some states, Cardoza said.
"It's an awful thing to do. Sooner or later, either people are going to get hurt, or the bear is going to get hurt," he said.
Material from The Associated Press was used in this story.
